Movies & TV Shows

[aaron158]

i am really tired of the poor packaging that is used by futureshop and bb for movies shipped from the website. over the past couple months i have had several damaged steelbook come last one being Blow.

i am sick of having to go all the way down to the store to exchange damaged movies it total defeats the pupous of ordering stuff online.

i have contacted the head office several times and all they do is says they are forwarding my request to the aproate department but nothing ever gets done there still using the same cheap dubble mailers witch provide no protection at all. i have even spoke to the manger at my local store who said he would speak to the head office about it and still nothing has been done.

i order steelbooks from around the world. i have bought some from the us, uk, germany and aus and i never got damaged ones from anyone other then what i order from futureshop.

(competitor) uk and (competitor) germany has custom boxes made just for steelbook shipping. other smaller shops use cardboard boxes and wrap the steelbook in 1-2 inchs of bubble wrap. heck even people i have bought steelbooks from off (competitor) package stuff better then futureshop do.

a bubble mailer with a very thin layering of bubble wrap is not enough to protect a steelbook its not even enough to protect standard plastic case movies sometimes becuase i've even got some of them damaged when i have ordered off of futureshop and (competitor).

[danno82]

I second that. 

For me it has got to the point where I order double the amount of steelbooks I need for a specific release and then return any damaged items or extras. 

This way I am guaranteed one undamaged copy

Some of the steelbooks sell out very fast, and if I get 1 damaged item in the mail and by the time I get to the store to exchange it they are sold out, that's terrible. 

I would also like to see better packaging for shipping steelbooks for web orders

[aaron158]

yep. at some  ponits when alot were coming out in a month the store has started to get picky about doing exchanges becuase i had to go in so offen. they called the manger over and he was all picky about it. like its my falut the thing got damaged.

 i trade some canadain steels to a friend in the uk for some of the uk ones that a site there sells that don't ship to canada. turned out one of them had a big dint in the back behind the paper and now unless canada post aproves the damage claim on it were going to be stuck with it becuase its out side the return window.

other then futureshop trying to save a few bucks theres no reason for them to be using this cheap packaging. even some small stores i have bought steelbooks from in poland and the neterhlands had enoguh common senes to package the steelbook in a box with 2 inchs of bubble wrap around it.

baiscly they want to make it so i have to go across ton on the bus to pick the steels up in person at the store just so i can get a good one.

this packaging isn't even good enough to protect normal plaisc cases becuase i've had several of them show up badly cracked.so if its not enough to protect a platic case movie its def not enough to protect the steelbooks that can barely take a small fall without getting dinted.

yes i agree to about the selling out fast alot of the futureshop only ones are old out online before the pre order time is even done and the stores can sell out rather quick to so sometimes u may not even be able to exchange it becuase none are left then u get stuck with dinted junk becuase of the poor packaging.

one thing thats stupid to is how big city stores will be sold out of them but there will be tons and tons of copys sitting collecting dust in smaller town stores that don't get hit much and futureshop has no way to tranasfer the stock from these stores to places were they would accualy to sold. like i went in a futureshop store in chatham and they tons of futureshop excuslive steelbooks that had been sold out at my local futureshops in london for years and they were just sitting there in that store collecting dust. if futureshop had ways of tranasfering stock they would probly accualy make alot more money off these steelbooks becuase they could move the stock out of stores that don't see much traffic.

[Atomic]

So I understand what you guys are saying and I also am a very avid SteelBook collector as well.

Yes, it is true that some SBs get damaged in shipping.  As it turns out, I actually don't get that many that are damaged.  Maybe 1 in 10 get damaged for me.  However, I always go in-store to ensure that I get to pick an undamaged one.

I don't really think it is realistic to expect Future Shop to have special packaging for SteelBooks.  Sure, you can ask, and if they do it that is great, but of course there is the added cost for both packaging and shipping.

You can say that it may be cost-effective for them to do it this way rather than managing returns, but we really don't know if that is true.  Many collectors may receive them undamaged, and still others may not care.

Yes, there are big online retailers that do have specialized packaging, but that is rare and fairly recent that this started happening.  They also have their entire business based on online sales and delivery.  Not so with Future Shop.  Not to give them an excuse, but these are not apples to apples, but totally different business models.

Finally, regarding the point about not circulating stock, I don't think that is true.  I have a friend who works in the Entertainment department and he is always sending stock back to headquarters to be redistributed elsewhere, so I'm pretty sure that is happening.  That doesn't mean you won't see something in one store that is not available in another, but that is a different story.

[aaron158]

its not just big stores that have better packaging for steels. i've order from very tiny stores in holand and poland and they sent me stuff packaged so well the post man could play football with it and it wouldn't get recked. futureshop is the only place i get damaged steels from.

and for the stock thing. i was trying to get the iron packs for the 3 toy story movies my store had 1 and 2 but none for 3. the guy checked the computer and there was tons of other stores that still had stock but all way to far to get to. i ask him if he could call one of the stores to have them send it to our store he said its not possable. i also sent emails to the head office asking them i they could have stock sent from a store that has one instock to my store and they said its not possable. also asked if the would call a store that had one instock for me and speak the manger and ask if he would be willing to ship me the iron pack i offer to pay the full price of the movie plus whatever they needed to ship it to me and they still said no.

also the packaging isn't just not good enough for steels its not even good enough to protect a standard bluray case. i have got a number of movies from futureshop that showed case cracked all up like someone jumped on it. then going into the store to exchange it was a big hassle becuase the c/s didn't want to exchange it becuase only the case was cracked.

i'm not asking them to use go out and buy speciazed packaging just for steelbooks. but alot of these damaged shipments would be provented if they would just switch to using cardboard boxes with some bubble wrap around the movies. bubble mailers provde 0 protection one drop and u movie will probly be wrecked. i shouldn't have to take a bus across town to futureshop to get a steelbook thats not dinted. futureshop should package things properly if its not cost effective for them to do so don't sell movies online.

i have tons of movies i have bought from germany uk aus and other countries and all of them have had to make jounries around the world and not one of them has 1 dint in them yet i've got tons from futureshop that showed up dinted and thats only a 2-3 hour trip away. futureshops packaging is a joke.

[Atomic]

Yes, I agree with you that the German packaging is excellent, but I think that exceptional packaging is the exception rather than the rule. 

There are still many e-retailers -- in fact all of them in North America -- which use the minimal packaging for everything.  I haven't had experience with Holland and Poland, but I know the majority of them are pretty poor with Germany and sometimes the same store in the UK being the exception.

Honestly, I haven't had a big problem with dented Steels from Future Shop, or dented Amarays for that matter.

Although I would love to see specialized packaging too, one thing I might suggest that might help in the short term is to send your packages to your work place instead of your home.  I think in most cases it is that last leg of the journey that damages the package, but that is just personal opinion.

As for your search for TOY STORY 3, I haven't seen any in my shop for awhile, but if you are looking for it and know that it is somewhere else, why not post here on the forum and see if another forum member can help?  That is something the forum can be great for.

There are other forums where this type of search-and-assist is done, why not here?

[albusCC]

I TOTALLY agree with the poor packaging. Almost every blu-ray or DVD I ordered from futureshop came dented (steel and amaray).

The service at the store is great, but the online experience is litterally the worst I have ever had. The website is very slow and the customer service is bad (It is easier to get help on the forum than to contact customer service). But the worst part is really the packaging.

[aaron158]

yes the online c/s people don't seem to care. i've told them more then one time about the packaging and they alway just say they will forward it to people who will look into it and nothing happens. instore is mostly better the c/s there can be rude at times when u have to exchage alot of stuff. but i usely go talk to a lady there who runs the movie gaming department and she accualy knows what shes talking about and if u ask her were something is she knows were to find it off the top of her head. were as say i got over to (competitor) i have a hard time even finding a person who works in that department and if u ask them to find something they have no idea.

i really don't think its to much to ask for them to use cardboard boxes with bubble wrap to package movies insted of bubble mailers.

one another thing i don't like is how if u only order 1 movie the only use letter mail witch has no tracking and is rather slow some times u get the item in 3 days but i've had times were it took 4 weeks. if u order anything over 2 the send expdiated witch only takes 1 day. why they cant just use expdiated for all idk (competitor) uses trackable for all there shipments.

[aaron158]

i recived my shipment today of lorax steelbook and strangly enough it was packaged in a box filled with cumpled up paper. the steelbook was on top of the paper though cramed all to one side of the box rather then sandwitched in the middle of the paper. better then how i normaly get stuff in bubble mailers hope the keep using boxes.

[danno82]

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aaron158 wrote:

i recived my shipment today of lorax steelbook and strangly enough it was packaged in a box filled with cumpled up paper. the steelbook was on top of the paper though cramed all to one side of the box rather then sandwitched in the middle of the paper. better then how i normaly get stuff in bubble mailers hope the keep using boxes.

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thats funny i had the same experience today with the Lorax Steelbook, i had 2 copies and the box was big enough to hold about 25 copies.

i guess overkill is better then underkill LOL.

but it was as aaron said, the movies were laying all on one side rather then being in the middle.

this is definately a step in the right direction...GOOD JOB FUTURESHOP